


Fire, Wind and Rain

by SegaBarrett



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Superheroes, boarding schools, powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27020260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Devin's new school is full of surprises. But so is he.
Relationships: Teenage Superhero & Teenage Supervillain
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Fic In A Box





	Fire, Wind and Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elsin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsin/gifts).



Devin Quilimodi had not requested to go to a boarding school, nor had he requested to go to an all-boy school (or, wait, “young men’s school” was what the brochure had promised), nor had he requested to go to a school that was filled entirely of rich kids.

He was zero for three so far, and he hadn’t even arrived at the place yet. He’d taken a train, then a rickety bus full of himself and four other people, and then he had been dropped off in a city named Sunbury in front of a red bench behind a Burger King. 

So much for traveling in style.

He looked around. There was something odd about the town – not quite unsettling, but just… different, and he wondered if he had made a mistake by going along with this at all. Maybe he should have yelled, should have complained. But after everything at his old school… 

Maybe they had had a point. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to go back even if his parents had let him.

So his only choice was to continue onward, to Willowbrook Prep and beyond.

He pulled out his phone and selected an Uber request. He frowned as he saw the black request button change to “No cars available”, then found a message stating, “Nearby drivers busy” for Lyft. He tried again a few minutes later and found the same.

Then again, and again, he started hitting the buttons, watching it cycle through the prompts – searching for drivers, and then that no drivers had been found and he should try again later. 

All right, he considered, it had been a relic of his parents’ time, but he could always call a taxi. He did a search in “Maps” and began to cycle through the list, pressing the “Call” button next to the first taxi, listed in Shamokin, which was also where Willowbrook Prep was located.

The first number rang, then went to a message: “please leave a message.”

That seemed… not particularly specific.

The next number, which was connected to a building that was listed as being a few blocks up the road, led to a message “this number has been changed or disconnected.”

This was the point at which Devin began to feel the first flush of panic. What if he called his parents and asked them to come and get him? 

The fact that it would take two and a half hours for them to get there, and he would be massively late to his first day, was also compounded by the fact that neither of them currently had a working car.

He would have to come up with something better. Not that he wanted to start by setting himself apart, especially after what had happened back home. But he also couldn’t spend the entire day in Sunbury, waiting for the next bus back to Harrisburg to come get him. He would have to think outside of the box.

He turned a corner and then started walking down the street, tilting his head to the side and seeing that the street name was “Market”.

One block down, he found a man with dark skin and a white beard sitting in a metal chair in front of what appeared to be some kind of a pizza shop. 

Devin hesitated. Should he bother this guy? He probably didn’t want to hear from him, and probably had plenty of things he would rather be doing. But it was worth a try, despite all of that “don’t talk to strangers” stuff that was bouncing around in his head.

“Hey, sir?” Devin called.

The man looked over at him.

“Hello,” he replied.

“You don’t happen to know a cab company around here, do you? I’m trying to call one, because, uh, I can’t seem to get an Uber around here.” Devin shifted his eyes around a little bit and then looked down.

“Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s a few. You called Paul’s Cab? Where are you trying to go, anyway?”

“I tried to, but it just cut off when I called. I’m just trying to get over to Willowbrook Prep,” Devin replied, reaching up and biting one of his nails as panic began to set in.

“You see that van down there? That’s where that ought to be.”

“Oh, okay,” Devin replied, turning to start to walk down the road.

“I know Uber drivers, though,” the man continued, “Let me just call her, real quick.” He put a cell phone to his ear and then looked back at him. Devin could hear a woman’s voice on the other end of the phone, but clearly it was a voicemail greeting. “Aw, she isn’t answering. Well, walk down there and if he’s not there, come back and then, uh let me see.”

Devin turned and walked down four blocks, finally reaching the address that he had seen listed and trying to drum down his panic as much as possible.

It was a building with a large picture window. He could see the lights were turned off inside through the door, and the windows were covered in large red and white cardboard campaign posters that listed: “Coralis for Mayor, 2020”. 

Devin wondered who Coralis was, and then came to the conclusion that not only did this no longer seem to be Paul’s Taxi Service, but there seemed to be no one in the building at all. Devin turned and quickly walked back towards where he had met the man, hoping that he had managed to get in touch with an Uber driver.

He was definitely going to be late to the first day of school.

He heard someone yelling, and turned his head, finding the man standing across the street and gesturing for him to run across it. 

“Come across,” the man called, and Devin cut in front of a yellow car, yelling an apology, before finding himself standing next to the man and an older Hispanic man with a gray beard. They were both standing next to what Devin had to declare was the most hideous car he had ever seen – it was bright lime green. “He’ll drive you. He knows the area around Willowbrook,” the man with the beard explained, and Devin considered that this could be a very, very bad idea. After all, this man with the lime green car could be some sort of a serial killer.

He also didn’t seem to have a choice, unless he wanted to sit around until the next bus went back to Harrisburg in the morning. 

“How much?” Devin asked. 

“Whatever,” the driver of the lime green car said and shrugged.

“It’s on his way,” the bearded man insisted.

The driver looked at the bearded man, and Devin got the impression that it was not nearly as on his way as he had said.

“You go down 61, right?” the bearded man included.

“I mean, yeah, kind of.”

“And don’t your daughter go to that fancy school, what’s it called…”

“Elys Prep, yeah. But she’s been up there since yesterday.”

“How about $40?” Devin asked, pleadingly. “I don’t want to take you too far out of your way, though.” He had sixty dollars that his parents had given him, though he assumed they hadn’t meant it for paying for rides from strangers.

“Sure,” the guy said, popping open his passenger side. Devin climbed in.

***

Along the way, Devin couldn’t help but take notice of all the cornfields along the way. He also couldn’t help but consider that they would be a great place to hide his body, if he was riding with a serial killer.

About halfway to Willowbrook, he turned his head and said, “I’m Devin, by the way.”

“I’m Guillermo,” the man replied. 

After he pulled up to Willowbrook, and Devin popped the passenger’s side door, he thanked Guillermo for the ride.

“And I know who you are,” Guillermo said as he closed the door.

Devin was left staring as the man drove away, not sure what to say.

***

“We don’t find lateness to be acceptable behavior here at Willowbrook.” 

Devin listened as the man behind the desk – Principal Lombard, as the placard on his desk said, droned on in way of a greeting.

“Is that the kind of behavior that got you… disinvited from your previous institution of learning?” Lombard continued.

Devin nearly burst into laughter. As if anyone could be disinvited from Ben Franklin High for being ten minutes late on the first day, or anyone would use the word “disinvited”.

The exact phrase that principal had used was “it’s better if you don’t come back around here.”

Devin didn’t really even blame him, considering how long it had taken to put out the fire in the Science lab. 

“Are you planning to answer me, Mr. Quee-la-mod…ee?”

“Quilimodi,” Devin prompted. “And I thought it was a rhetorical question.”

Lombard’s back began to turn red, but Devin was saved from the ensuing rant by a knock on the door.

“Come in,” he called. 

The door opened, and a boy with bushy, chestnut brown hair entered.

“Mr. Coralis. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Uh, Miss Wheatley said for me to come down here and see if there were any new students. She said they’re still looking for like, four of them.”

“Here’s one,” Lombard said, with what almost sounded like some sort of light little growl. “Take him to class. Mr. Quilimodi,” his eyes flared, “I don’t want to ever have to see you in this office again. Do you understand me?”

“I do,” Devin replied. 

The bushy haired boy gestured for Devin to come closer, and down the hall they began.

***

“I’m Ivan. Coralis,” the boy said. His voice was smooth, lilting. Devin considered that he would have a great voice for radio, if he was into that kind of thing. Devin wasn’t sure that people usually even listened to the radio anymore. “Old Man Lombard isn’t so bad once you get to know him, but he goes extra hard on the scholarship kids, so I’m guessing you’re one of them.”

“And I’m guessing you’re not,” Devin replied. Ivan shrugged.

“As my dad likes to say, it all comes out in the wash.”

“What does that even mean?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure.”

Ivan shrugged again and kept walking.

“Let’s have you drop off your stuff off at your room first. Did they tell you what dorm you’re in?”

“No, not really,” Devin said. “They just kind of brought me in and then Lombard started yelling at me. Considering I had to hitch a ride with a guy who really could have been a serial killer, they should have been glad that I arrived in one piece and not, like, as somebody’s hat.”

Ivan tilted back his head and laughed, maybe for a second longer than Devin would have considered normal.

“All right, well, I’ll check with somebody and I’m sure they can put us on the right path.” Ivan walked past a classroom and knocked on the glass door. A moment later, a shorter and blonder boy walked out of it.

“You rang?” he inquired.

“Ah, shut up, Scott. I need to know what dorm the new kid is in. What’d you say your name was?”

“Devin. Quilimodi.”

There had been a name that he had been called before, but he couldn’t say it then. In fact, he really shouldn’t have even been thinking it, unless he wanted to cause even more trouble.

“Yeah, what he said. Find out where he’s supposed to be.”

“Yeah, yeah. Okay, boss,” Scott replied, then slipped back into the classroom. A moment later, he emerged and said, “He’s in Cave Hall.”

“What are the chances?” Ivan declared. “So am I. Let’s go.” He clapped Devin on the back and started him off down a path. The grounds were filled with grass and trees, as far as Devin could see. They seemed to be heading towards a series of blue buildings, behind the larger building they had just left.

They made their way towards one in particular, with a little sloped roof that made it look more like a cottage than a dormitory.

“Here we are. Cave Hall,” Ivan announced. He pulled a card out of his pocket and swiped it on the door, pulled it open and stepped inside. “Your room’s up at room seven. Next to mine. I’m room six. No keys to the rooms. They aren’t into that kind of thing here. Feels it builds ‘distrust between brothers’. Hmm. Anyway, go drop your shit and then we’ll head back to class.”

Devin went up the stairs and opened door 7, dropping his bag under the bed with little preamble and the taking a moment to look around.

He tried not to think of anything, and tried most of all not to think of memories.

The hallway in the abandoned house. The door that had sprung towards him. The way everyone had been convinced that he was dead. The way his friends had looked at him when he had got up and then walked away.

The way that, that night, he had become… different. 

_He hadn’t talked to any of those friends since the fire in the Science Lab. None of them had known about… well, the thing that he hadn’t told any of them about._

_The fact that he had another name, when the lights went down at night._

_The fact that people called him… Fireboy._

  
He didn’t really like it, but that was what he had been stuck with. He hadn’t chosen to light the guy on the el who was trying to rob somebody on fire, but after that it had kind of stuck.

He hoped there was no camping trip at this school. He had seen a TV show where they did that, brought everyone out camping so they would learn everyone’s deep, dark secrets.

And that would be bad on two counts.

“Come on, hurry up!” He heard Ivan calling from downstairs. “We’re gonna miss class.”

Devin shook off the thoughts and shut his door, then ran down the steps.

“I’m here,” Devin announced.

“I see that. Let’s go to English, man. We’re reading something where people get their heads cut off, I think.”

“Anything in particular?”

“Well, I’m not sure yet. But last year, we read _Native Son_ – a head got chopped off – _The Stranger_ – a head got chopped off – and then _A Light in August_ – a head got chopped off. So that’s my theory.”

***

The assigned book turned out to be _Flowers for Algernon_ , and as far Devin could remember, the heads had stayed intact when he had read it back in freshman year. 

He had trouble focusing on what the teacher was saying, however. As much as he tried to keep his mind in the present – mindfulness, was what his mom had called it – he was drifting.

_“Devin, no one needs to know anything about what happened before.”_

_“How much do you know about what happened before, Mom? You haven’t believed anything that I told you about any of this.”_

_“Devin, kids can get stressed when unexpected things happen. That fire was scary for you, and it made you think some things that weren’t quite… on point.”_

_“You know that’s not true, though.”_

_“It doesn’t matter what’s true. What matters is what people will think. The best thing for you is a fresh start, angel. And we know just the place.”_

“Mr. Quilimodi, our new student. What do you think about all of this?”

Devin swallowed and looked around. He hadn’t been listening to the conversation at all, and now he was due to make himself look clueless on the first day. 

At least he didn’t set anything on fire, though. That was a plus.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Bradley,” Devin began, then looked around all over again, and then to the whiteboard, where the word “aspiration” had been written. “I was just thinking about what you wrote on the board. About how we all have aspirations, but fate doesn’t usually listen to it. And you can’t tweak it, either. I feel like that’s a theme of this book. That you can’t change fate, so you should try and accept it.”

“That’s very insightful, Mr. Quilimodi. Welcome to my class, and to Willowbrook. We’re glad to have you.”

***

The rest of the classes primarily consisted of going over what they would be learning about and when they would, perchance, be learning it, and none of it was particularly noteworthy. He didn’t get called on at all after that point, and he considered that one in the W column.

Ivan was already back at room 6 when he made it back to room 7 at the end of the day. And he was looking at him, looking him over in a way which made Devin’s brain fire off warnings that he knew. 

What was he supposed to do if someone here knew? His parents had told him to keep a low profile, and that might have been a wash already.

And if Philadelphia didn’t want a superhero screwing things up, then he doubted Shamokin did either.

He walked into his room with a little, awkward, terrified wave to Ivan, and then he closed the door and held his breath. No locks, after all. 

***

Devin pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it, seeing if anybody had messaged him. He didn’t know what he was hoping for – maybe someone wishing him well on his first day, or saying that they were sorry for the way that everyone had stopped talking to him after the fire.

That it wasn’t his fault. That he had only been trying to help. All of the things that he had been trying to tell himself, but hadn’t been able to make stick, because only the bad things like to stick around in someone’s head and the good things tend to run away.

He missed his friends from home, even if they hadn’t been great friends at the end. Maybe they just needed time to come around. 

Or maybe he should find friends here, at Willowbrook, and just hope that they might never know. Because if they knew, it would be another Willowbrook tomorrow and then another and then another, until he finally graduated and then moved far, far away, and maybe became a hermit out in the clearings.

Being a superhero wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, after all.

***

Devin woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of his phone vibrating. He realized that it was still in his hand, that he had fallen asleep with it clutched to his chest under the blanket.

The text was: _There’s something happening that I thought maybe you should see._

A link followed, and it wasn’t from a number he recognized, but it was one from 215 – the Philadelphia area code. So, maybe someone who knew him from back home? But who? 

He wondered if he should click the link – usually, that was a bad idea. Plenty of phishing emails out there; were people now moving on to phishing texts? 

But something made him click the link – some voice in his head telling him that if someone was contacting him about something important, he couldn’t just pass it by. He needed to know.

He let his finger drift over the link and pressed, letting the window pop up. It was a news article – “Storm Blows Down Jewelry Store, Several Injured, One Killed.”

He read through, at first wondering why in the world someone would send him an article about a weird storm and a store that had been blown over. 

Then it hit him, as he read on – no other buildings in the area had been damaged at all, and this one building had been blown down. All the jewelry had disappeared, too, and never found in the rubble.

This had been the work of something outside the normal weather, and that was why whoever this was had sent it to him. They wanted him to do something about it – though what that something was, who knew?

There didn’t seem to be any indicator of who had done this, because of course, people didn’t look for reasons behind “acts of God” after all.

But clearly, there was something else going on here. There had to be a clue, but he didn’t think he would find it in a 500 word article that was mostly lists of people who were injured when the store blew over

He would have to go do some research. He scrolled down the article all over again, checking to see where this place was in the first place.

Shamokin, PA, it said. 

Shamokin proper wasn’t that far away, if he wanted to try to look into it. If he was back in Philadelphia, he could hop on the el and be there in a flash. But he had only made it here by hitching a ride with a random guy.

Maybe he should try calling first. But who would give information about a crime to a teenage boy? And he couldn’t really lead with being Fireboy, either, considering they would probably think there was something very wrong with him. Or know that there was something very wrong with him.

He sighed and put the phone back down. There was still an hour to go until he needed to get up for class; that meant he had an hour left to rest, and to plan. 

***

Devin woke up, and his first stop was to get dressed and then go to his first class of the day, which was gym. 

Devin had never been a fan of gym back at Franklin. People had always been running around and knocking people into the walls, screaming at the top of their lungs and lobbing dodgeballs at his head because he was too small and too awkward to put up a good fight. 

He didn’t know what it would look like at Willowbrook, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like it either way.

He lingered outside the gym, the door not quite open and not quite closed. He could hear voices beyond the door but he wasn’t sure where the locker room was or if he even wanted to go into it. He was probably going to end up being late again; and then old man Lombard was going to be yelling at him all over again.

And then maybe, that would be his first step out the door. He hoped that on his way home, he could swing by downtown Shamokin and figure out what had happened to the jewelry store. 

“Hey,” called a voice, and Devin turned around. He found Ivan standing there, hands on his hips, with a cheeky smile on his face. “Coming in?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Devin said, and found himself being pulled along into the locker room. Dressing, then, walking and running them. Kids at Willowbrook never seemed to play rough, always seemed to be focused on keeping their faces pretty rather than winning the game. Maybe, Devin wondered, because they had already won in all of the ways that mattered. 

He considered asking Ivan for a ride to the jewelry store, but he would have to explain way too much. He was going to have to blow open the whole story and he didn’t know Ivan like that, not yet.

Maybe he would never know anyone here like this, because none of them seemed to have a care in the world. He listened to them debating Lexus versus Porsche and Italy versus Monaco and almost wanted to scream.

But there was something Ivan could do for him, and it wouldn’t cost either of them much. And he wouldn’t need to explain. 

“Hey Ivan,” Devin called as they walked back into the locker room, “How do I get over to Elys Prep?”

He smiled back.

“Well, that’s the easiest question I’ve ever been asked.”

*** 

There was a touch of the quest about the journey to Elys Prep. Ivan showed him how to slip out the back and start along the hill that connected Willowbrook to Elys. 

“Hill” seemed a bit of a misnomer, Devin considered, as he looked at it. It was more of a mountain, he felt, considering it seemed to go straight up and not end within his sight.

“We’re going over there?” he asked Ivan, and the other boy laughed.

“It’s fine. I do it all the time.”

“You know somebody over there?”

“A few somebodies.”

Devin smiled.

“I guess you must be pretty popular. Any relation to that… Coralis 2020?”

“Yeah, that’s my dad. Mitya Coralis. The man everyone’s always talking about.” Ivan rolled his eyes. “You won’t believe what a big deal he is around here. Always donating to the school. Our name’s even on the auditorium.” He snorted.

“It sounds like you’re not as impressed as everyone else is,” Devin noted, grabbing a piece of grass that stuck up from the hill as he started to make his way up it with faltering steps. 

“Yeah, trust me. I’m not. If there’s one thing that he taught me, it’s not to believe the hype.” 

Ivan easily scaled the first part of the hill, then turned around and offered his hand to Devin.

“You’re pretty strong,” Devin said, grabbing a hold of his hand. The touch felt electric, somehow, like a static shock. Maybe it had been too long since he had been around someone, truly, and had spoken to them without fear. 

This could be dangerous. Maybe he should have stayed back at school and let his curiosity fade on its own. Focus on writing the paper he would inevitably be having to write on _Flowers for Algernon_. Something on symbolism, maybe, or foreshadowing.

But he hadn’t stayed at school. He had made his choice. Because maybe, as much as he wanted to start over, maybe Fireboy would always be calling him, from somewhere inside of him that he couldn’t shake.

But he couldn’t tell Ivan that, and he wouldn’t be able to tell whoever he was going to be talking to in Shamokin. He would have to figure out a cover story.

Of course, he would have to find what he was looking for at Elys, first.

Or rather, who.

***

It took them around a half an hour to climb up the hill and get over it, and Devin tangled his leg in vines halfway down and had to be rescued by Ivan. He limped along the rest of the way, reaching the gate at a little before five. 

_Elys Preparatory Academy, where young girls become women,_ the inscription on the front wall said. 

It all seemed very proper, and Devin was surprised when Ivan pushed the gate to the side as if it was nothing at all and then strutted on to the campus. 

“I’m looking for a girl,” Devin said, and Ivan smirked. 

“Well, you aren’t going to win anyone over if you say that to everyone. Makes you seem kind of desperate and not very picky.”

“Not like that!” Devin grumbled and poked him with his shoulder. He was exhausted, and getting tired of Ivan’s antics already. But he had needed him, and he still needed him. “A specific girl. I’ve never met her, but I met her father when I was coming over here.”

“Well, I know most of the Elys girls one way or the other. A lot of them come to my father’s events. It’s what counts for political involvement around here.”

“Well, this girl… her dad works in Sunbury. He’s Latino – Mexican, I think maybe?” 

“Okay, so someone whose parents do actual real work does narrow it down at this school. Did he say what grade his daughter’s in?”

“I don’t think so? His name was Guillermo, though. He drove a lime green car.”

Ivan snapped his fingers.

“You’re looking for Ximena Rodriguez.”

“How the hell did you get there from that?”

“How many people in the world drive a lime green car?” Ivan pointed out. “I’ve seen that thing driving around town and trust me, it makes an impression. I hear she keeps trying to get him to turn it in, but her dad keeps saying it has character or something. If by character, he means Joffrey Baratheon, then he would be right.”

Devin laughed.

“Do you just talk shit all the time?” he asked.

“Yeah, basically,” Ivan replied. “And although I’m not really sure why you want to meet a girl after meeting her dad – I think it’s supposed to be the other way around – Ximena is usually over in Paradise Hall. Text me if you need me, but I have a date with a few of the cheerleaders.”

“Doing what?” Devin inquired. Ivan grinned.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Anyway, good luck with Ximena. See you tonight.”

Devin blinked and then started to walk over to Paradise Hall, which a tiny sign helpfully informed him was just past the dining hall and next to the administration building. 

When he reached the front door, under a big pink arch, he froze. How was he going to go up and introduce himself to this girl and explain everything, when he hadn’t been able to tell anyone he actually knew?

Maybe because what a stranger might think wouldn’t matter as much, wouldn’t hurt as much?

He still didn’t know exactly why he had to find Ximena, but he had to.

He pressed the doorbell on the edge of the door.

“Hello?” a voice sang out.

“Hi, I wanted to meet with Ximena Rodriguez.”

“Uh, I’ll send her down. One second.”

A few moments later, the big door creaked open and a lanky girl with long black hair stepped out on to the stone steps.

“Hello? You said you wanted to meet with me?”

Devin hadn’t really considered how he was planning to explain all of this, or in fact any of this, to somebody who he had just met. 

Instead, he stammered out, “I… ah… I met your father yesterday. I was in Sunbury. He gave me a ride to school. I was wondering if he would be willing to give me a ride to Shamokin. I know that’s a really weird thing to ask, and uh, I’m sorry, and…”

Ximena looked at him and chuckled.

“I mean, we could. Or I could just give you a ride? If you don’t mind riding in a car that makes my dad’s look like a Range Rover?”

“Well, I don’t have any car at all, so I can’t really judge whether one is good or bad,” Devin replied. She began to walk to the parking lot behind the dormitory, stopping only when she had arrived at a hot pink car with a door that seemed to be falling off and a huge scratch across the hood. 

“Was there like… a sale on these brightly colored cars? I’ve never seen cars this bright before,” Devin asked her, and she laughed again.

“My father and I both like to make an entrance. When you’re one of the only scholarship kids at a school full of snooty girls, you have to be proud of who you are. I bought this car with the money I make working in the library. I’m proud of it. I might get the scratch fixed one of these days but, eh, it gives it some character. Hop in.” She paused. “You’re not a serial killer, are you? I have a firm no-serial-killers-in-my-car rule.”

“No, definitely not a serial killer. But… when I tell you my story, that might have been a more simple explanation.”

“Hop in.”

***

Devin wasn’t sure what led to it all tumbling out, when he had spent so much time not telling anyone anything about him. Not about the day he was catching the bus and the tanker behind them exploded, and the way he had been pulled into the flames but had emerged unscarred. Not the things that happened after, the way he could make a candle flame dance if he just pictured it in his mind’s eye. Not the way he had hoped to use it for good but found that it was all too temperamental and seemed only to lead to disaster. That it was such a stupid power to have and that he should have listened to Smokey the Bear.

At that, Ximena laughed.

“I don’t know, I think being Fireboy could come in handy, especially if you’re about to rock out to a slow song at a concert.” She flashed a cheeky grin. “I think it’s really interesting. Sounds like you can’t stay away.”

“Because I’m an idiot.”

“Because you’re a hero,” Ximena said with a shrug. “If everything you’ve told me is true – and I’ll take you at your word because why not, it’s more interesting – then you have the power to really help people. And you are.”

“I’m not a hero,” Devin replied. “I’m just… I don’t know. Either lucky or unlucky. Just because I have the power to do things doesn’t mean that I know what I’m doing, or that I know how to use it to do the right thing as opposed to just… screwing it up here like I screwed it up back home.”

“Maybe back home wasn’t ready for you then. Home towns usually aren’t. I think there was something about Nazareth not being ready for Jesus and being like ‘hey, I know that guy, he’s not that important. He forgot where he came from.’”

“You’re comparing me to Jesus now?” Devin joked. Ximena rolled her eyes and pulled down a street, then pulled over into a little parking lot with no other cars in it.

“Here we are. Shamokin, Pennsylvania. Home to nearly nothin’ at all. Shall we get started?”

Devin looked over at her with a confused look. 

“What?” Ximena continued, “You think I’m going to turn back around and what, come back when you’re done? You, my friend, have stumbled into a sidekick. Or Girl Friday. Or something like that. An associate.”

“A partner,” Devin said, extending his hand. Ximena shook it. 

“A partner.”

***

They made their way to the jewelry store, now less a store and more of a building with a blown in window and a sign on the front that said “Closed until further notice.”

“Well, it's a no go here,” Devin began, but Ximena leaned in and peaked through the window.

“Somebody’s in there. Probably the owner, clearing up.” She reached up and began knocking on what was left of the door.

“Ximena! What if he doesn’t want any visitors?”

“Everyone wants a visit from a superhero.”

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s weird.”

“Well, you’re weird. Get used to it.” Ximena knocked again, and a moment later a man with black hair, dark skin and a pair of black-rimmed glasses came to the front.

“Yes? Hello?”

“Hi, are you the owner of this place?”

He pointed up to the sign.

“Ormand Jewels. I’m Ormand,” he replied. “Or at least, I was. That hurricane has me screwed up for a while, now. Insurance doesn’t want to pay for a damn thing. I knew I should have moved to LA and taken that part on _Carnivale_. I’d be sipping champagne on a float in Malibu right about now. Or waiting tables. But that might have been a step up from watching the same guy come in and buy rings for three women on the same day, trying to hedge his bets.”

“Did anything seem weird to you about the wind?” Devin asked, feeling just how stupid it really sounded to say it out loud. 

“Weird about it how? Other than that it knocked the place plum over like it was a house of cards, kiddo?”

“Anything else weird?”

“Well,” Ormand began, then hesitated before finally saying, “There were some footprints when I came in later. That’s kind of weird, isn’t it? Like, kind of small footprints. I have big feet, so it wasn’t me.”

“Footprints where?” Ximena asked, “And in what? Like, mud?”

“They looked like they were in oil, actually,” Ormand replied, “Even though there’s not a gas station or an oil refinery or anything like that nearby. I don’t know why someone would track that around here after it’s already been blown down?”

“Was anything taken from the store?” Devin asked. 

“Yeah. A lot of diamonds, and some other jewels. Some rings?”

“That doesn’t really sound like a storm,” Ximena mused. 

“Probably someone saw the storm and saw an opportunity,” Ormand said. “People come and get stuff if something’s not secure, especially expensive stuff. That’s what the police said, at least.”

“And that’s who the footsteps might be from?” Devin inquired. “I mean, do you think maybe whoever had the footsteps kind of… planned for this?”

Ormand laughed, a sad laugh.

“If you can find somebody to blame for this, kids… Then you let me know. Cause somebody needs to replace this glass.”

***

“So, who would be to blame for this?” Ximena asked as they sat on the wall in the park next to where Ormand’s had stood. “You have to have an idea, right? Is this someone you’ve gone up against before?” She leaned a little closer. “Do you have a nemesis, Devin? Please tell me that you have a nemesis.”

“I don’t have a nemesis!” Devin declared. “Unless you count Cody from my old gym class who was always throwing deodorant at my head in the locker room. But he didn’t have any superpowers… other than good aim and a nasty attitude.”

“I think that might not be true. This happened right after you got here. What if whoever did this wanted you to get sent a message? What if they’re like… challenging you?” Ximena asked. “How did you find out about it, anyway?”

“Somebody sent me a text with the article…” Devin replied, reaching up and biting his thumbnail. In retrospect, that part did sound more than a little suspicious. “A message? Like what kind of a message? Like… saying he wants to fight me?”

“Who’s to say it’s a ‘he’?” Ximena pointed out. “It’s not me, by the way. Just to put that out there.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s not. Or I would be in a car with my nemesis with no way home,” Devin said, “Very ‘trapped with a killer’.”

“Or ‘trapped with a jewel thief,’ at least,” Ximena said. “It has to be someone who would have access to your phone number. But that could really be anybody. I keep getting these texts about whether I’m going to vote for Coralis for Mayor. They don’t even care that I’m not old enough to vote. Day in, day out.”

Devin’s lips pursed. 

“Coralis… Wait, you know Ivan, right? From my school?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ximena said, “Everyone here does. He’s kind of a big man on campus and all of that. Lots of money, pretty popular. Well, with mostly everybody. There are some people who don’t like him that much.”

“Like who?”

“Teachers, mostly. I think some get annoyed that he gets good grades without really trying. People think he cheats or gets other people to do his stuff, but he’s smart though. Like… cunning. He can figure a way out of any old thing.” Ximena laughed. “Wait, you think maybe Ivan is your nemesis? It would figure. It really would.”

Devin shook his head.

“Nah. I mean, he’s been weirdly friendly to me. He’s the one who showed me how to get to Elys. Why would he help me out if he knew who I was? It seems weird to try to bring someone into your evil lair if they didn’t even know you were evil in the first place.”

“Unless he’s playing some kind of cat and mouse game with you,” Ximena said. “Maybe he likes you.”

“Likes me?” Devin let out a nervous little laugh. “Why would anybody like me?”

Ximena cocked her head to the side.

“Well, I don’t know that it helps that Fireboy has no self-esteem.”

“Please don’t call me that again,” Devin said with a sigh, then corrected, “I mean, you can. Just… I guess I prefer Devin? I never really liked that all that much either, though.”

“Try getting people to get ‘Ximena’ correct. But more importantly… Do you still have that text message? Let me see the number.”

Devin reached in his pocket and pulled out the phone, turning it on and handing it over to her. Ximena looked at the message and then pulled out her own, holding them side by side. 

“Look, this is one off from the number that I got the text from…” Ximena began.

“There’s a reason for that,” said a voice behind them. A moment later, Devin watched his hair flap up, as if swaying in a breeze, then looked over at Ximena and saw her ponytail dancing as well. 

Devin jumped to his feet and turned. It was Ivan – of course it was – but also not Ivan. He was dressed head to toe in a light blue with a white helmet, and he wasn’t glaring. He was smiling.

“I was hoping you would figure it out.”

A moment later, Devin was knocked over so hard that everything went black.

***

When Devin woke up, he was in the backseat of Ximena’s car, holding his hand against his temple and letting out a moan. 

“What happened? Was that real?”

“Um, the fact that a super villain blew you over? I’ll say it was real. And I know people say they like the ‘windblown’ look for hair, but this is ridiculous,” Ximena said.

“Are you okay?” Devin inquired, and she nodded.

“It seemed like he only wanted to make an impression on you. Show you what he could do, I guess. Like I said, I think he likes you.”

Devin groaned.

“Why though? What have I done worthy of being liked other than fall into the world’s most annoying and destructive superpower? Who would want anything to do with all of that?”

“Well, a supervillain, apparently. Do you want me to give you a lift back to Willowbrook?”

Devin groaned.

“I don’t know. I mean… He’s there. He literally has the room right next to me. There isn’t anything that could make this any more awkward if I tried.”

“Well, you have to figure out something. Maybe…” Ximena turned the key in the ignition. “Maybe you guys can find a time when you can be friends, and a time when you have to be enemies. Like, you know, just put up those boundaries.”

“I don’t know if we even are, though. Friends? I mean, I only just met Ivan and now he’s a supervillain and I asked my parents to send me to the performing arts school but apparently my father always wanted to go to boarding school when he was growing up. Who has that as an actual dream? What is wrong with my entire family?”

“It sounds like your father wanted what he didn’t have, and you want what you don’t have,” Ximena said, putting the car into drive. “And you don’t want what you have.”

***

Ivan’s door was shut when Devin arrived back on campus, and he was thankful for it. He had no idea what he would be expected to say to him, whether he was supposed to pretend to not have any idea what had happened. What if Ivan was already spreading around Willowbrook that Devin was Fireboy?

What would his parents say if he had to leave this place, too?

He had to figure something out. He knew, now, who had hit Ormand’s but he still didn’t know why. What would someone as rich as Ivan need with a bunch of jewels anyway? And what kind of fence – a term Devin knew from his father’s love of Law & Order marathons – would buy from a kid at a boarding school, anyway?

There had to be something more going on, here, and Devin just wasn’t able to figure out what the hell it could be.

But he had a feeling he would know soon. Probably, he would know much sooner than he would hope.

***

The next morning, he awoke to a tap, tap, tap on his door, followed by it opening and Ivan Coralis, stretched up to his entire height and looking like a cat that ate the canary (a kind of gruesome phrase, Devin had always felt, as a fan of the _Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries_ ). 

“Good morning,” Ivan said, “We should talk.”

“About what?”

“Don’t play dumb. I want to set the rules of the game.”

Devin rubbed a hand over his eyes as Ivan knelt with one leg on the edge of the bed. Ivan certainly had him at a disadvantage, didn’t he? He scooted back to the wall and looked over at him.

“What rules are those?” Devin asked. “Listen, I had no idea you were here, with… whatever it is you’re doing exactly, when I came here. I just came here to get away from my old school after I burnt down the damn science lab. I don’t want any trouble, and if you want to just call the whole thing off… Then that’s what I want too.”

It wasn’t a very superheroic thing for him to say. A real hero would never back down for a fight. But Devin was already feeling tired, now – it was too much already.

“You don’t mean that,” Ivan replied, and his voice was dripping with disappointment. “As soon as I saw you, I knew that you would be special… Fireboy. They don’t make heroes like you anymore.”

“There may be a reason for that,” Devin replied, pulling a foot on to the bed and considering that if he could even rise to his feet, he would gain some sort of advantage, or at least some sort of bearing.

“We tend to not end up very well.” There was no way to know for sure, since he had never met anyone else like himself, though.

Anyone until Ivan, that was.

“We don’t tend to end up very well, either,” Ivan replied. “Because we’re special. Because we can’t be contained. People are afraid of us… And that’s why…”

“That’s why what? What did you need from a jewel store anyway? What’s your plan?”

Devin had given up on trying to get out of this; maybe there was no chance to do so anymore. Maybe there had never been any chance, because maybe this had always been made for him. Maybe he had been born for this – maybe he really was special in some way he couldn’t figure out.

Ivan smiled.

“Why not? Why not take what we can, if we can do it?”

“But you already have anything you could want, Ivan. You’re rich. Your father is running for mayor. What is it that you want?”

Ivan leaned back off the bed and turned on his heel to walk out. Before he made it to the door, he turned his head ever so slightly.

“Well, Fireboy. I want everything.”

***

Devin felt like he couldn’t have been blamed if he had decided not to go to class at all that day, but for some reason he went anyway. He could feel Ivan hovering in the corner, watching him and paying attention to every little thing that Devin did.

What was it that Ivan wanted from him, anyway? Why not just take him out of the running? Why toy with him? 

Devin felt like fate had already toyed with him enough. At least he managed to come up with a few coherent answers on _Flowers for Algernon_ , based entirely on his memories of having read the book two years ago. 

It must be lonely to be a mouse in a maze, he mused. It had to get boring after a while. Maybe Ivan’s fancy life was his own maze. 

He let his eyes glance over towards Ivan. He was sitting on the other side of the classroom, and the look on his face didn’t appear to betray any concern at all. He had the look of any unaffected rich boy, and Devin wondered if maybe he had been wrong about it all along. Maybe stress was getting to him and none of the bizarre confrontation had actually happened in the first place.

He let his eyes hover over Ivan. Was he really a supervillain? If so, what was his story? Had he always been like this, or had it been like with Devin, where something had happened and then the next day he had woken up and was never the same again?

The only way to find out was to ask him. Devin was in deeper than he could imagine.

***

“Ivan,” Devin called as he made it back to the adjoining rooms. “I need to talk to you.”

Ivan titled his head to the side and smiled at him.

“What do you need to talk to me about?” he inquired.

“About… what you are. About what we are.”

“I wouldn’t say that I’m anything,” Ivan replied. “I’m me. I’m Ivan Coralis. I’m the son of the man who’s going to be mayor of Sunbury.” He tilted his head and he chuckled, as if he didn’t care at all. How was it that he was so calm and collected about all of this, while Devin hadn’t been able to string a few ideas together in a row that made sense after this had begun? Maybe it was just easier for certain people. People like Ivan.

“Does your father know? About what you can do, I mean?” Devin asked.

Ivan snorted.

“He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care, either. That man has had everybody else in the world taking care of me since I dropped and since my mother took off because she was tired of his political ass. But he wanted a kid… he felt like a man with a family looked better in a political career. He didn’t take into account the actual… having a kid part.” He let out a breath. “Caught up with my mother a few years ago… and found out that she could do this, too.”

“And what is… ‘this’, exactly?” Devin stepped a little closer. He knew he shouldn’t get close to Ivan, that Ivan was bad. But now, finally, he could talk about everything that had been going on in his mind with someone who knew, really knew. 

Ivan smiled and stepped over, opening the door to Devin’s room and stepping inside, waiting for Devin to follow and then, when he did, shutting the door behind them.

“You’d like to see what I can do? You really would?” Ivan said. “Because you can’t take it back, once you see it.”

“I can’t take back what I’ve done, either,” Devin said, “So spare me all of that kind of stuff… I’m not a kid anymore, anymore than you are. So whatever it is that you can do, you had better let me see it right now. Or… or…”

“Or, what will you do, Fireboy?” Ivan shot back with a smirk. “You gonna light a candle and start to sing a power ballad?”

Devin rolled his eyes.

“Quit grandstanding. If you want to show me something, then go ahead and show it. Otherwise, I have homework to do.”

Ivan smirked.

“You really think you can be a hero, don’t you? You really want to be big and bad and stretch and protect people, even if they’re people who don’t have anything but scorn for you. The kind of people who wouldn’t trust you to watch their children, but will come crying to you when they can’t get their cat out of a tree.”

“I like cats,” Devin replied.

Ivan reached up and scratched his nose, then smirked and said, “Get ready, then. You probably want to get away from anything you have hanging on the walls.”

“Just do it,” Devin said.

A moment later, Ivan had extended his hand and a gust of wind emitted from his palm, bursting out straight towards Devin, then taking a sharp left and crashing into the wall, making it shake, then shooting upwards and then, at last, swirling, before coming right back to Ivan. He caught it like a softball, and then gave that same cat-eating-the-canary grin. And maybe Devin was the canary. 

“So what about you?” Devin said after a moment, his eyes still wide and still unblinking, “Do you have a name that they call you?”

Ivan smirked.

“I don’t know what they call me. They probably don’t call me anything, because they’re too blind to notice me at all. But there’s a name I called myself. It’s kind of corny – but life is kind of corny. This stupid school is kind of corny.”

“Why do you always have so much lead-up to what you’re actually planning to say?” Devin asked. “I need you to start getting to the point, Ivan.”

Ivan started off towards the door, then opened it and closed it, before shooting him a gaze. 

“I call myself the Windbreaker. Sounds kind of like a rollercoaster, doesn’t it?”

And then Ivan was gone.

“Sounds kind of like a sweater,” Devin muttered, closing his door. He picked his phone off the floor, looked at the cracked case, and placed it back on the nightstand.

***

“Seriously?” Ximena said, “How did a superhero and a supervillain end up with adjoining rooms at the same pretentious boys’ school? I can’t say I really believe in coincidences in this case, Devin. Someone planned this, and someone wants… something. I just can’t figure out exactly what that something could be. A showdown?”

“A showdown? Like one of us is supposed to kill the other?” Devin asked, eyes wide. 

“Well, I hope not. You guys are both a little young to be doing all that,” Ximena said. Devin looked at her.

“Hey, you’re younger than we are!”

“Only by a year,” Ximena said, “And I’m not killing anybody or trying to, so that point is kind of moot. But someone put you guys together. Maybe he – or she, I guess – wants one of you to corrupt the other. Or maybe someone is just like… morbidly curious about what might happen if they put you both side by side. Who would have something to gain by it? And who could do it in the first place, anyway?”

“Well, who would have access to the records of the school? Who could decide to admit people, certain people, at a specific time, and put them side by side?”

Ximena looked over at him.

“Well, I could venture a guess at one person.”

***

“Well, young man, Principal Lombard is in a meeting right now, and he is absolutely not to be disturbed. I don’t care what your reasons are…”

Devin extended his hand, flipped up his palm and let a tiny flame flicker in the center of it. Enough to illuminate a chorus of a Staind song at a concert.

“I think you should let me through,” he said, and the receptionist shrugged, as if this was not the first time she had seen fire emerge from someone’s hand in the middle of a prestigious private boarding school, and then she stood up and opened the door.

“Lombard! The kid with the weird name for you.”

“It’s not that weird of a name,” Devin pointed out, “To be fair… Fireboy is easier to say, but weirder when you really think about it.”

Lombard stepped forward and narrowed his eyes at Devin.

“Well, hello. I was wondering when you were about to figure it out. Your superhero career seems to show as much promise as your essays.”

“I worked really hard on that _Flowers for Algernon_ paper,” Devin fired back, “And it’s not our fault that we read it, like, two years ago. Or my fault that you brought me here on purpose. What do you even want? Why bring me here next to Ivan? To try to start some sort of weird, like, superpower war?”

Lombard smirked and stepped past his receptionist, who didn’t seem to be reacting to any of the unusual conversation at all.

“I wanted to see what would happen. When you bring too opposing elements together, do they repel, or do they attract?”

“Attract? What? Why does everyone think that Ivan has some kind of crush on me?” Devin asked.

“Probably because I do,” said a voice behind him, and Devin turned his head to see Ivan standing there, winking at him in a way that made him feel more than a little uncomfortable. Clearly, everyone here was up to something.

“So what’s the endgame?” Ximena asked, breaking through the staring everyone was doing at one another. “Are you going to let us all walk out of here with this… knowledge, or are you hoping for some kind of a showdown?”

“I was hoping for something better,” Lombard said, looking at Devin, then Ivan, then Ximena. “I was hoping for all of the brightest, most talented people to all be in the same place. If we manage that… then there’s nothing that we can’t do.”

“So, this is like a… Charles Xavier kind of deal?” Ivan inquired. “Well, listen old man, I work for myself. My dad doesn’t tell me what to do and neither do you.”

“You said your dad hasn’t talked to you in the last four months,” Ximena reminded him. “Wouldn’t you rather him be telling you what to do than ignoring you to run his campaign?”

Ivan grumbled in response and rolled his eyes.

“Well, if you want us to all be working together,” Devin said, “Then why don’t you tell Ivan he should give back that money he took from the jewelry store? Ormand didn’t do anything to him.”

“Listen, boys – and random girl from Elys Prep – I don’t referee. I like my pupils to sort out their concerns on their own. That is the skill they will need one day, after all.”

Devin locked his eyes on Ivan.

“You give Ormand back his money, or I’ll light your hair on fire.”

“That sounds like a fair trade,” Ivan said. “I’ll do it tonight. I was just trying to get your attention, anyway.”

“Well, don’t.”

Ivan shot him a look.

“You’re both idiots,” Ximena said, then looked at Lombard. “So are you. Everything could have gone horribly wrong with having two people with superpowers just doing whatever and not telling anyone anything. It’s things like this that give people the wrong idea about boarding schools.”

“Is there a right idea about boarding schools?” Ivan inquired. Ximena rolled her eyes.

“You boys should get back to class, and you back over the mountain to Elys before someone sends you to a tea party,” Lombard said.

“Have you actually even been to Elys in the past, like, hundred years?” Ximena asked.

“I have a new student coming in, and I don’t want any distractions. He needs to get the right first impression of Willowbrook, because he did get accepted to two or three other schools. We’ll discuss this later.”

He waved with his arm, groaning as rain began to drip from the ceiling above him, and ushered the three teenagers out of the office entirely, leaving them looking at one another in a sort of dazed stupor.

“You had better not try any kind of wind stuff on me,” Devin warned Ivan, who crossed his arms. “I’ll know if it was you.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll call you if I need to roast any marshmallows,” Ivan retorted.

It was at that moment that the unmistakable sound of an old, rattling car with no muffler broke up their conversation. They stepped outside the building to see a hideous, bright yellow car pulling, with some difficulty, into a parking spot. 

A boy popped open the door, stepped out, and then slammed the door shut, which fell off the car with a huge dent in the side.

“Oh, my God,” Ximena said. “No, no, no.”

Devin and Ivan looked at her.

The boy walked up and looked at her with a smirk.

“Pablo,” she groaned. “You never said you were coming here.”

“I try to keep some secrets,” he replied.

“Devin. Ivan… I’d like you to meet my little brother. We... like to call him Strongman.”

Devin looked around.

“It’s going to be a long year… isn’t it?”


End file.
